Over the last decade, as I felt more and more pain in the various body parts, in parallel PR became even more of a 24×7, online-focused profession.  Much as I’m intrigued by the dynamic PR activity in Arizona, and the ability to convey that activity through blogging, I’ve exhausted the medical and holistic solutions to the pain.   As I told my doctor late this summer, the unrelenting pain finally overrode my stubborn ego and my need to be relevant in PR.  The future course is simple – avoid computers. 

In retrospect, I’m so pleased that Valley PR Blog asked me to join their ranks in 2007.  I’ve enjoyed analyzing and dissecting trends.   I’ve even enjoyed the trolls, as they made me think harder about my analyses and the way I assessed and expressed issues.

There’s talent here in Arizona.  I’ve met vibrant, passionate PR people of all ages.  Yet on the eve of 2011, we still struggle as PR practitioners to get clients to understand that press releases by themselves are not a PR strategy, that PR is about building relationships.  It has always been a challenging job, but never more so than now, I believe.   We have to keep up with an ever-changing roladex of bloggers, analysts, media, consumers.

Thanks to Valley PR Blog, I’ve learned three key things about social media:

1) Be helpful.  Share information, don’t proclaim it.

2). There IS genuine wisdom in the crowds.   Put the issues out there for all to comment on.

3).  Be real.   You’ll meet more people like yourself that way.

I’m kicking 2010 to the curb, and embracing 2011.   It will be the most computer-free year I’ve had since 1984.  What will it bring for you, for me?

I ran into Richard Burger at a Growth Nation conference, and he has recently moved back here after 8 years in Hong Kong and Beijing.  What’s it like to be back here after such a long hiatus?   He was willing to give me some answers:

1.        What’s your background?

 After getting my Master’s in Journalism I worked as a copy editor at the NY Times and then worked as a reporter in DC for a business news syndicate. In 1989 I stumbled into PR for high-tech companies and found it something I enjoyed. I worked in Silicon Valley for three years during the tech boom of the mid-90s and then came back to Phoenix to work for a dot-com. When the dot-coms crashed I went to work for a PR agency in Hong Kong in 2000, and then made my way to Ketchum PR, where I worked as Sr. Vice President in both their Taiwan and Beijing offices. In Beijing I helped manage the global PR campaign for Lenovo’s Olympic sponsorship, the single most exciting period of my life. After the Olympics I worked as an editor at the Chinese newspaper The Global Times for a year, and then decided it was time to head back to Phoenix. But I’ve kept doing work in China, most recently representing the designers of the USA Pavilion at the 2010 Shanghai World Expo.

2.       Why did you recently return to Phoenix, and how long a time were you away?

 I was gone for nearly 8 years, and I came back to Phoenix for family reasons. My heart is still in Beijing, but I have responsibilities here I had to take care of.

3.       What do you hope to accomplish for your career here now?

I love training executives to deal with the Chinese media. It’s so different from the U.S. media, and there are all sorts of special materials you need to produce to satisfy them. So I thought it would be a good idea to create a consultancy specifically dedicated to preparing companies for practicing PR in China. And I don’t simply give them a media training full of insights into China. I also offer to help them plan and execute media campaigns on the ground in China, as I did for the Shanghai World Expo and the Beijing Olympics. 

4.       What are the biggest surprises, both good and bad, about being back here?

There was a lot of reverse culture shock when I moved back. I had to get used to people holding a restaurant door open for me – China is way too crowded and busy for that – and to cars driving without slamming their horns the whole way, as they do in China, On a more psychological level, I was surprised at the sense of anxiety over the financial crisis that seemed to permeate the American psyche. In China, the crisis was an abstraction.

5.       How do you think living overseas has helped you as a PR person?

Learning how to do PR in China broadens your worldview and offers insights into a whole new culture. You literally have to re-learn everything you knew and approach the media from an entirely new starting point. Living overseas has made me a “global PR person,” one who can shift from one mentality to the next without too much effort. This has given me an ability to explain and teach the way PR is practiced overseas to executives who are used to “American-style PR,”  and thus I believe it’s increased my net value as a PR consultant.

6.       What is the biggest challenge to living in Phoenix in your mind?

Living in Phoenix, especially after returning from China, with its convenient public transportation and low prices, has certainly been a challenge. All of my friends in China were clustered in a relatively small area, and we’d all walk to the nearby coffee house to meet. Phoenix is far more spread out, and getting used to freeways as a way of life has been tough. The subway in China takes you everywhere for 30 cents each way so we wouldn’t dream of driving. Other challenges have been the summer heat, of course, as well as the intensity of the current political dialogue. I don’t remember election campaigns being this nasty, on all sides. In China, a one-party dictatorship, elections are unknown except at the village level, so it’s easy to forget what American politics can be like. 

__________

His new business/website is www.chinamediastrategies.com, and you can follow him on Twitter @CMStrategies.  He says it is the first consultancy dedicated exclusively to China-focused media training and PR.  “The training is designed to give you the tools and the practice to deal confidently with the Chinese media, to avoid costly mistakes, and to help you win valuable coverage.”

This is the fifth annual Arizona Enterpreneurship Conference, and the theme is 2010:  The Great Reset.   The recession we’ve all experienced represents opportunities for change and innovation, and this conference is a collaborative collection of experts on funding, startups, late stage/exits, branding, and small business marketing.  Several local success stories will be featured, including Eric Keosky-Smith’s Schwaag.  All proceeds go to The Opportunity Through Entrepreneurship Foundation (OTEF) started in 2005 by Francine Hardaway, Ed Nusbaum and Rob Dunaway.   The foundation provides training and support to help at-risk youth and adults improve their lives by creating and growing entrepreneurial ventures.

The early bird registration ends October 16th, so sign up now and save!

Where: Desert Willow Conference Center, 4340 Cotton Center Blvd, Phoenix 85040
When:  Wed., November 17, 2010  7:00 a.m. – 7:00 p.m. For a complete agenda, click here:

Register here:

Where:  ASU Cronkite School, 2nd floor, 555 N. Central Ave., Phoenix

When:  Saturday, October 9th, 1:00 p.m. – 4:30 p.m.

Cost:  Free

Register here For more details, check out www.cenphocamp.com

There will be an “after party” at “The District” in the downtown Sheraton.   Hey, stop by and buy me a drink there! 

The event was originally organized by Tyler Hurst, who wanted to “connect those in the know with those who want to learn.”  And according to co-founder Yuri Artibise, it was inspired by a desire to “bridge my two passions:  social media and downtown Phoenix.”  He felt that the social media community was largely bypassing downtown, and wanted to create “cross pollination and increased understanding.  I wanted to contribute to creating a more vibrant downtown.”

Rather than a theoretical book, the step-by-step guide tells you exactly how to create a LinkedIn profile and make the most of it. What’s unusual about this book, too, is that it is part of a series from QuePublishing that includes free video tutorials and audio and web links as well.  If you learn best by printed instructions, you can just use the textbook. If you learn best by watching someone else, however, you can take advantage of the “show me” videos that are mentioned throughout the book and visit the link. 

The books produced by Que Publishing are about as close to real-time in book form that you can get.  One of the challenges in social media applications is that the information keeps changing, so the traditional book process can often take so long that the information is dated once the book is released.  Que Publishing, however, has set up a system to get this information to print very quickly, and author Patrice-Anne Rutledge www.patricerutledge.com has efficiently covered just about everything in this text, from the different levels of membership, mobile applications and ads to groups, tools and how to create good recommendations.   The table of contents is very detailed, so if you just have a specific aspect you want to learn about, such as creating LinkedIn e-mail signatures or adding the WordPress or Slideshare application, you can zero in right on that section.   I’ve been on LinkedIn since 2003 or 2004 (thanks to Ed Nusbaum!), and I found it handy to have one book to go to for certain aspects of the tool I hadn’t gotten to yet (the old 80/20 rule). 

She told me that her goal in writing Using LinkedIn “was to help people move beyond the basic profile and really take advantage of everything LinkedIn has to offer. So many people only scratch the surface when it comes to using all of LinkedIn’s features and then wonder why the site isn’t working for them.”  She has used the tool since January 2005 and has found that it generates better results for her consulting business than either Facebook or twitter.

It’s available on Amazon for $24.99.

I’ve found there are 3 types of social media books – the high level, extremely theoretical (which has its value), the ones whose covers promise a lot but turn out to be mostly platitudes and not much practical advice, and a 3rd category that covers the topic comprehensively with a theoretical point of view and a detailed roadmap point of view.

Anyone writing a book on social media will have a tough time in their book proposal explaining how their book on strategy could possibly be different from Liana Evans’ new book, “Social Media Marketing,” or how it would advance the knowledge available on the topic.  She has really created a thorough piece of work, and it’s also the first book I’ve seen that includes a critical section on the importance of involving your legal team from the very beginning.    As I’ve blogged before, the legal dept. can be an unwitting roadblock to your communication efforts unless you partner with them.

I think Li explains best in her introduction what the goal of the book is about:  “I’ve written this book to give any marketer, novice, or expert a deeper look into the realm of social media marketing. So much has been touted, preached, and hoisted up on a pedestal as things marketers or companies should be doing, it’s hard to believe what’s true and what isn’t. This book can be your guide from beginning to end in understanding what’s hype and what’s not. For making the case of whether or not you should be actively engaging in social media, to putting the pieces together to plan a successful social media marketing strategy.”

It’s a helpful book in determining whether a particular client of yours should implement social media as part of their marketing strategy, as well as a guide to how you should roll it out. It’s a very strategic book, but it includes the tactical how-to and background information as well.

One of her mantras is knowing your audience and doing research on the demographic, and finding out where your audience is. I’m working with a client now to convince them that the upfront research is critical. Their default opinion is just to use social media and press releases as broadcast tools, without really knowing whether their targeted customers are on a particular social network. I will be using Li’s book as validation of my instincts and as printed reference to build my case (if it’s in print, it must be true – or at least, it carries a lot of clout!  tongue-in-cheek). 

She spends a good deal of time explaining why it’s a mistake to think you can avoid negative things by staying out of social media. We all know we need to be aware of the conversations so we can address them, and Li explains it very articulately. When you come to the community, too, she says, be prepared to add value. Community members want a conversation about the brands they love, not to listen to the same messages they get in brochures and TV.  Social communities are a niche, and people choose to be there. Therefore, your approach must be unique to that community – this is exactly what I tell my clients. Just because a customer knows your history does not mean they know your brand.  Lots of good quotable assertions are in this book.

As I write this, I’m looking at “Guerilla Marketing Excellence” on my bookshelf in my office. Written by Jay Conrad Levinson, it was one of THE books about marketing in the 90s. Times have changed. While I’m sure it contains a lot of advice that is still germane,  if you want to be relevant today, you and your clients need to understand a practical roadmap to how social media should be integrated with your marketing.

I think I also liked the book also because she was one of the few people who agrees with me about Seth Godin.    (see p. 243!).   As you probably know, he does not allow comments on his blog, thus she doesn’t feel it’s a true conversation. He is just broadcasting information which too many people seem to scoop up, turn around and offer their own followers.     (The last is my take, not her phrasing).  I don’t want to slam him (I’m sure he’d be great to have coffee with) and I know he has explained on his site why he doesn’t take comments, but still….the one-way dialogue hits me the wrong way…

The only pushback I have on the author are the occasional references – not very complimentary – to PR agencies.   To wit, “On a general level, most marketing firms or PR agencies tend to look at social media sites as marketing tactics instead of parts of an entire social media strategy… they think it’s about pushing out another press release, commercial on YouTube, or free coupon to try your product.”  Another — ” If you’re working with classic public relations firms, their idea of social media might be e-mailing your press release to a bunch of bloggers or journalists with the hope that someone will care.”   Li, Li, come back to us!   Come to Phoenix!   We have a pretty good group here of enlightened agencies.

Thanks to Que Publishing’s publicity team for bringing this book to my attention.  From time to time I receive pitches from book publicity agents, and I was dubious about this one because it seemed like a broad topic that had already been done to death.  I was wrong!

Photo credit: Veronica Belmont, Creative Commons License

Valley PR Blog’s Len Gutman is one of the featured speakers August 30th at an “e-reader bakeoff” hosted by Arizona Book Publishing Association.  (Disclosure – I am on their board of directors).

Ebooks and ereaders are exploding.   How do you know which device to choose? Should it be a Kindle?  A Nook?  An iPad?  Last month, Amazon announced that its Kindle sales outnumbered its hardcover sales. This month, Bloomberg Businessweek reports that the elderly are drawn to the iPad because of its ease of use, and prefer it as their news and entertainment source.  As authors, would-be authors, or PR pros who have authors as clients, should we be considering a dedicated device like a Nook on which to publish, or should we be moving toward a multipurpose device like an iPad?  If we just like to have mobility for our personal book reading, what are the pros and cons of each ereader? 

For more information and to register for this event, visit www.azbookpub.com.  I will be moderating the panel, which features Len Gutman, Tyler Hurst, and Jennie Oleksak, director of the Information Commons at Brophy College Prep.

The panelists were Kathy Sacks from Infusionsoft, Cindy Kim from JDA Software, Al Maag from Avnet, and Ed Brice from Lumension.   They offered us some insights on what motivated them to include social media as part of their overall branding strategy. A few highlights:

Ed - Lumension didn’t have a marketing budget like a giant company such as McAfee, and decided to pursue social media as part of their strategy. It’s no longer the traditional buying cycle, he said. We have to have a dialogue and show thought leadership.

Al - it’s not easy to convince a company to engage in social media, he admitted. Our brand is imperative to be successful. I just know we should be doing something. I’m a big believer in video, and we started a portal. We figured that if we can get our customers to market faster with helpful content, we can get the jump balls (nice basketball analogy!).

Cindy – social media is having an impact on B2B companies.  It’s helpful in order to build thought leadership. At Lumension (where she previously worked), they saw a 55% increase in business media coverage because of the blog. The intent of the blog was to establish relationships, and this was a nice outcome.  At JDA, she created a framework to get the C-level buy in, and conducted quite a bit of research to shed light on how the landscape is shifting. Content in social media needs to be objective, informative, and educational, she emphasized.

Kathy - we are therapists, because we need to listen as part of social media, and we are publishers, because we are creating meaningful content for our community. We have 20,000 users, 5000 small businesses, who are a loud, vocal bunch.  It’s a core part of our marketing strategy. Social media allows us to level the playing field. But it requires a headcount — someone internal to engage and monitor it.

___________

One of the best tips of all that I heard during the panel was from Ed Brice. He said, “At some point, get out of the ROI discussion.  You have to decide if you want to be there. Don’t use social media as a lead generation tool.”  I thought this was a great insight and one not commonly reinforced. Those at the C-level with whom we deal often equate public relations and social media as tools for lead generation, and that’s not really the goal. As Chris Heuer once pointed out, it’s a conversation with someone, not to someone.   Ed continued that “people don’t want to be sold to. Honesty is what it’s about. It’s a content-centric world in B2 B. The number one source of trust is the peer of the person you’re trying to sell to. You don’t control your brand, your customers do. People believe in their peers.”

This, of course, is the mantra of social media.  We need more panels like this to get the word out.  

Enterprise Network knows how to put on a good meeting, and the networking environment this morning was superb. Keep them in mind for future events – check them out at www.en.org. 

And kudos to Kathy and Cindy for dealing with the open talk show format — the panelists were up on a stage with four chairs and no table in front, which needless to say is difficult to maneuver when you’re wearing heels and a dress.

Photo courtesy of Laird Brown Photography

You can view the different workshop topics and times here.

1.     How many more weeks will you be in Phoenix, and then when do you return to the Middle East?

I will be here in Arizona till Sept. 14. I timed my return to Riyadh to bypass Ramadan which is somewhat fun and interesting, one time, for non-Muslims but otherwise rather aggravating for Westerners. However, I am still open to being rescued by a great communications or teaching opportunity in Arizona!

2.       What was your biggest fear or concern before going there last fall?

Frankly, my biggest concerns were the dual issues of getting the necessary paperwork for the visa completed in time and settling my affairs in Phoenix, including renting my house and having a place to store my truck. It is generally agreed that the visa process is outlandish, outrageous and nail-bitingly stressful. If one does one’s due diligence about life in the magic kingdom there shouldn’t be too many cultural surprises, particularly if you’re coming from a similar climate such as southern Arizona. I did wonder how I would fare without women, adult beverages or movie theatres.

3.       What turned out to be the nicest surprise?

The graciousness and hospitality of the Saudis and the subcontinent work force (Pakistanis, Bangladeshis, Indians) as well as Filipinos and Egyptians and their friendliness to Americans. However, by “hospitality” I mean public behavior since there is effectively no “home hospitality” — that is, a Westerner is not likely to be invited to a Saudi home. There was one notable exception where I was befriended by a delightful, educated and cosmopolitan Saudi, Abdullah Al Guarani, who not only invited me into his home but allowed me to participate in his daughter’s wedding in Jeddah (from the men’s side of the wall, of course) and took me camping up in the desert up by the Iraq border with his friends.

I also was pleasantly surprised by how safe I felt in any neighborhood at any time of day or night The only people with guns are the military and police and there are no drive-by shootings, gang fights, serial killers going on rampages, road rage (well…very little), muggings, schoolyard fights and very little of what I’d call street thievery or panhandling.

4.       What credentials did you have that made you a good candidate for this position?

I have a master’s degree in English and have taught English and writing to post-secondary students. Also, I am open to learning about other cultures and had no particular ties to the States such as a wife, kids or someone who needed caregiving.

5.       Were there any particular foods you missed while you were there?

Bacon, wine, hot dogs, wine, sausage, bacon and wine. You’d be amazed how bad a hot dog can be when all traces of haram pork products are removed. On the other hand, one learns to like beef bacon…and the minced camel ain’t too bad.

6.       What places or stores did you visit when you first came back to Phoenix this summer, and why?

Trader Joe’s, Target, Fresh & Easy, Wal Mart and a few purveyors of adult beverages. It’s not the stores themselves that are the issue since Riyadh has most of the major chains, including Safeway. It’s more about the hours of business: stores close four times a day for prayer and are simply not open at other times that you’d naturally expect, such as noon to 4pm on the Saudi equivalent of a Saturday afternoon. Every shopping expedition, from a quick milk run to the neighborhood bakalla (convenience store) to a trip to Ikea or Best Buy is governed by the daily-changing store hours. Show up at a McDonalds (spelled, oddly enough, macdonalds in Arabic with the extra “a”) one minute after prayer call and you’re simply out of luck.

7.    What did you find to be the perception of Americans by the other foreigners teaching there, and by the Saudi Arabians?

Americans seem to be well-liked and everyone is curious about the diversity of living conditions, weather, shopping and geography. Generally speaking, Obama seems to be liked and I get the sense that they’re glad Bush is gone. Most of the teachers I know are Americans but many would be hard-pressed to say where they’re from since most have lived and taught in every nook and cranny of the world and usually have two or three languages they can use. Consequently one can listen to Americans in the corridors speaking Spanish, French, Tagalog, Chinese, Arabic and German. Ironically, I find the Americans to be the most suspicious and paranoid of the nationalities, most likely to believe any rumor or urban legend and most likely to simply mutter “Poland” when asked where they come from. Many are afraid (without any justification) to stand in a doorway for more than 10 minutes, to take photographs, to take the same walking route to school or to wear perfectly legal long shorts out on the street.

8.       What made you feel the loneliest? 

Inability to simply get together with women and men on a casual basis for dinner, a movie, a BBQ or just to hang out by the pool or play some tennis. Sitting in an outdoor café at night with some male friends you look out on the busy street and it feels like a Twilight Zone episode where all of a particular demographic group — in this case, women — have been surreptitiously removed from the society and you literally see nothing but men in every direction.

9.       What gave you the most satisfaction?

Being able to put together a few coherent sentences in Arabic and having the occasional Saudi say “You have a very good accent” was very satisfying. Piecing together a string of heretofore mysterious Arabic scribblings and have an Aha moment where you say “Oh…I can read that word!” is exciting.

I’d also say that getting applause from students after a great class or having students come by my office or stay after class to tell me how much they appreciate my efforts is priceless. It’s a bit startling though to read a student exam and see “I love you Mr. V” scribbled at the bottom until you realize that Arabic doesn’t make a distinction between “like” and “love.”

10.   What advice/information links, would you give to PR professionals who think they might like to teach abroad?   

For teaching English, a master’s degree in an English-related field and at least some classroom teaching experience is the basic requirement. You just can’t get around that, whether you’re male or female. A website called “Dave’s ESL Café” is the bible of the ESL teaching business and should be the first place to consult. Obviously the wildly popular Veeds of Arabia website (now viewed in 60 countries and with a massive following of 18 persons) would also be a good reference source.

Although Saudis could certainly use teaching professionals in PR, advertising, communications and related fields, I don’t see a lot of demand for Westerners in those areas. Maybe it’s because the concepts of customer service, public relations and goodwill-building are almost absent from Saudi business. I say that with the little bit of cynicism that I allow myself to have but I think it’s a supportable assertion.

11.    How long do you plan to be back there this time? 

I’m signed up for another 1-year assignment (though I could still be lured to stay in Arizona).

___________________

I begged Jim to bring me back a burka, just so I could see one up close. He still has yet to fulfill that request, and has corrected me to say it is technically called an abaya, not a burka, in Saudi Arabia.  The abaya is the robe that covers her from the neck down, and the hijab and niqab cover her head and face.  You can read more at his blog about preparations for and living in Saudi Arabia here.

All photos courtesy of Jim Veihdeffer